NO DAFFODILS, NO CLOUDS I wanna write a poem as crooked as Willem Dafoe’s teeth, a poem as pockmarked as Tommy Lee Jones’ sour puss… I wanna write a Meatloaf poem, not a Manilow, and definitely not a Mel ‘the Velvet Fog’ Tormé poem… I wanna write an “UH-oh!” poem, one that conjures up the Jaws theme and makes you say something like, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat!” An armored-personnel-carrier poem! A bomb-squad poem! A flak-jacket poem! I wanna write an O J Simpson Ford Bronco poem that’ll lead the coppers and choppers in a cold pursuit right up the San Diego Freeway!

PLAYING WITH FIRE

CHAPTER ONE HOT SHOTCHAPTER TWO DEAD IN THE WATERCHAPTER THREE JUST PRESS THIS BUTTONCHAPTER FOUR ON THE STORAGE AND HANDLING OF CONDIMENTSCHAPTER FIVE DOESN'T PLAY NICELY WITH OTHERS CHAPTER SIX JUST A LITTLE GAME OF MUSICAL CHAIRCHAPTER SEVEN PLAYING WITH FIRECHAPTER EIGHT FRIENDLY FIRECHAPTER NINE DELIVERANCECHAPTER TEN KILLER MATH PROBLEMCHAPTER ELEVEN WOLF AT THE DOORCHAPTER TWELVE TOMMY TESTOSTERONE AT THE DOOREPILOGUE THE SINS OF THE FATHER

MY CINEMA PARADISO: A Movie-Marathon Lifetime Memoir in 3-D Poetry

(Released in April, 2010; 5.25 X 8 inches; 88 pages; 73 poems; perfect bound; Green Bough Publishing; $14.95)My Cinema Paradiso is a film buff's hymnal to American Cinema, The Great Teacher... The Great Escape. Each of its poems is the namesake of a film (i.e., "Altered States," "Reefer Madness," "The Big Chill"). The book is a Baby Boomer's memoir in poetry, counterpointing events and issues in the author's life with specific films from the 1940's to the present...